In an interview broadcast by the American channel ABC, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky seemed more inclined to discuss certain Russian demands.
On NATO, the Ukrainian leader said he no longer wanted to push for Ukraine’s membership, one of the issues that officially motivated the Russian invasion of his country.
“I tempered my position on this issue some time ago, when we understood” that “NATO was not ready to accept Ukraine”, he declared in this broadcast interview. Monday evening.
“The Alliance is afraid of anything controversial, and of a confrontation with Russia,” he lamented, adding that he does not want to be the president of a “country that begs on its knees” for such a membership.
“we can discuss”
The Ukrainian president also seems ready to discuss the status of the two separatist territories in eastern Ukraine, the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who recognized them unilaterally just before launching his war in late February, wants Ukraine to recognize them as well.
“I think that with regard to these temporarily occupied territories (…) which have only been recognized by Russia (…) we can discuss and find a compromise on the future of these territories”, explained Volodymyr Zelensky.
“We reject ultimatums”
“What is important to me is how the people who are in these territories and who want to be part of Ukraine are going to live”, he continued, considering that the question was “more complex than simply the to acknowledge”.
“That is another ultimatum and we reject ultimatums. What is needed is for President Putin to start talking, to start a dialogue, instead of living in a bubble,” he said.
The Russian president is continuing his offensive in Ukraine, explaining that he would achieve his objectives “either through negotiation or through war”. Among its demands, the “denazification” and “neutralisation” of Ukraine, as well as the recognition of the independence of Crimea and the separatist areas of Donbass.
